Technology Drives Deepwater GOM Winning Streak

Abstract

The oil and gas industry appears to be on a winning streak in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico. When major newspapers in New York, Washington, Los Angeles, and other cities run lengthy articles focusing on an extended well test 175 miles offshore Louisiana, as they did last September about Chevron's Jack-2 well (Walker Ridge Block 758), then something is up. Likewise, something is up when BP discovers, as it did last August, 800 net ft of pay in 5,860 ft of water at Kaskida (Keathley Canyon Block 292). That opened an important new lane in the Lower Tertiary play. As industry consulting firm Wood MacKenzie later reported, 2006 was "an exceptional year for exploration in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico," with discoveries such as Pony (Green Canyon Block 468) by Hess and Great White West (Alaminos Canyon Block 856) by Total adding to the buzz. The discovery rate per well drilled in 2006 climbed to more than 40 million barrels of oil equivalent, the consulting firm noted, making it the most successful year since 1999 when BP discovered Thunder Horse. Discussing U.S. production, Cambridge Energy Research Associates labeled the Lower Tertiary play "the most significant oil trend since the discovery of the Prudhoe Bay field in 1968" and said that as much as 800,000 barrels per day—11% of U.S. production—could be flowing from this reservoir in the GOM by 2012–14. The essential driver of the success so far, and of that possibly just over the horizon, is technology that continually challenges and in so many cases finds ways to overcome steep technical obstacles that once seemed indomitable. Recent advances in seismic-acquisition techniques, for example, have brought step changes in the quality of images obtained from beneath the extensive and often thick salt canopy of the deepwater GOM, areas that not too long ago were simply avoided as virtually impossible imaging targets. Fifth-generation dynamically positioned (DP) rigs being delivered are equipped to lead drillers out to 12,000-ft waters, while synthetic mooring lines are enabling floating production facilities to cross the 8,000-ft threshold and look beyond to where the new rigs will go and the next producing floaters will follow. Innovative real-time monitoring tools are guiding drillers down some of the longest, costliest, and riskiest wellbores with the narrowest pressure-gradient windows for reaching their targets safely. And expandable pipe is enabling these drillers to meet high-risk downhole contingencies with flexible, optimized casing programs. What follows is a look at those and other technologies, with perspectives from the people who work with them and in some cases helped develop them.